Book Comparison: Hunting Big Woods Bucks by Hal Blood versus Big Bucks The Benoit Way by Bryce Towsley

If you’re looking for a book on hunting deer in the woods rather than on a ranch filled with food plots, Hunting Big Woods Bucks and Big Bucks The Benoit Way are two useful tools.

Both books are interesting reads to deer hunters and both are worth while. Beginners and experienced hunters will be able to gain tips from these two books. You can’t go wrong with either book, and serious deer hunters will enjoy reading both books.

Big Bucks The Benoit Way discusses only tracking as a hunting technique. This book devotes more pages to hard core tracking and does a slightly better job of describing some of the basic tracking techniques. Some of the pictures of different buck tracks help a hunter to learn how to distinguish a buck track from a doe track.

Hunting Big Woods Bucks devotes pages to other topics besides just tracking. The author (Hal Blood) discusses stand hunting, still hunting, as well as tracking techniques. Hal Blood adds creditability to his book by showing pictures of some of the smaller deer taken under his watch, not just the monster bucks (although there are plenty of those). I appreciated the fact that Mr. Blood understood that the definition of a “trophy” depended on the hunter, not some outside criteria.

I learned from both books. I enjoyed both books. If I had to chose only one, I suppose I would go with Hunting Big Woods Bucks by Hal Blood because he discusses hunting techniques other than tracking. However, if I wanted just a book on tracking alone, I believe Big Bucks The Benoit Way by Bryce Towsley is slightly more comprehensive.

One Note: Neither the Benoits or Hal Blood use trail cams to scout their deer.

Kolpin Sight Vice A Good Deal

I've been wanting to get a gun rest for sighting in my firearms for some time now. Up to this point, I've tried to site in free hand which certainly reduces the accuracy of my shooting. I've hesitated up to this point because some of the nicer gun rests run several hundreds of dollars. That's more expensive than many of my guns! This past week Cabela's ran a sale on the Kolpin Sight Vice offering it for $10. For that price I could not resist. Even if it was a piece of junk, for $10 I figured it was worth a try. At best it could save me from buying a $200+ gun rest. At worst, I'd be out only $10.

I received the Kolpin Sight Vice earlier this week. I was not expecting much, but I was presently surprised with the usefulness of this gun rest. Certainly it's not as sturdy as a $300 Lead Sled, but the Kolpin helped me out right away. I was able to use the Kolpin Sight Vice to securely hold my muzzleloader while I worked on mounting a new scope. I then used it to secure several guns while I checked the zero with a boresighter.

The Kolpin Sight Vice uses simple clamps with padding to tightly hold the gun in place. The device has a freestanding front rest, or you can switch it out to use clamps on both sides. The underside of the rest has a compartment in which lead shot can be added to give the rest extra weight. The compartment is relatively small, so unlike the expensive gun rests, you are going to have to live with some recoil while shooting with this rest.

The rest uses 3 legs. One of the legs has a simple spring loaded threaded rod which can be easily turned to adjusted the elevation of the gun during shooting. The Kolpin Sight Vice is made of plastic, not steel like the expensive rests, so you can expect it to be less robust than the expensive models. It might not be the choice for sighting in a sniper rifle intended to shoot a 2 inch group at 500 yards. However, for most hunting applications, the rest is more than adequate to assist the shooter in sighting in a firearm, especially for such a low price. If you want all the features, don't buy this product. If you're looking for something simple and want to save a buck, the Kolpin Sight Vice is a useful tool.

Connecticut Needs to Make Improvements to Pheasant Season

Connecticut is a state without a natural pheasant population. Therefore, to allow pheasant hunting, the state stocks pheasants at several locations throughout the state.

I appreciate the pheasant program in Connecticut. Without it, we would not be able to hunt birds. However, there is a lot that could be improved with the way the program is run.

First, the DEP needs to get serious with stocking methods. Many times birds are stocked during the week or early on Friday. People that are available, like retired guys and guys that get out of work early on Friday, shoot all the birds Friday evening before the sun even rises on Saturday. By Saturday morning the workingman is often relegated to spending hours walking around a field with one or two birds that survived the previous night’s shooting. To solve this, especially on Friday, the state needs to stock after dark. I’ve been in the field when the stocking truck comes. If there are hunters in the area, the birds barely last the hour. Nighttime stocking is fairer to the hunters, and to the birds.

Second, there are far too many hunters for the amount of locations available. It’s not surprising that a hunter was hit by some stray birdshot while pheasant hunting at Robins Swamp earlier this year. On some Saturday mornings it’s difficult to even find a place to walk at some of the more popular pheasant hunting locations. For safety and for the quality of the pheasant hunting experience, the state needs to open up more locations.

Finally, the state needs to stock more birds. At some locations there are more hunters than birds. I’m not saying I want it to be easy, but I don’t want to waste my time either. I want to hunt bird, not fight with other hunters for one nervous bird.

Like many states, the state of Connecticut is in the midst of a serious budget crisis. Rumors swirled earlier this year that the pheasant stocking program was one of the programs considered for cutting from the bloated state budget. This is unwise and unnecessary. Pheasant hunters pay for special pheasant tags. The program is basically self-sustaining with the money collected from tag fees going to purchase bird for the following year. If the program is not solvent, the state needs to charge the correct amount for tags to make it solvent. Hunters understand the stocking program costs money, and they will be more than willing to pay a fair price. I’d rather pay more to have the program run right, than to pay less for a poorly run pheasant stocking program. In addition to the direct fees pheasant hunters pay to the state coffers, there is the significant indirect revenue brought in by pheasant hunters. Hunters spend money. They buy equipment. They eat at local restaurants. They pay sales tax. Eliminating the stocking program would dry up all the spending done by pheasant hunters. Enhancing the program would have the opposite effect, as well as make for a better experience for the hunters.